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Current PhD Students

Sweta Batni

Sweta is a 4th year PhD candidate in the Global Infectious Diseases Program working in Dr. Heidi Elmendorf’s Lab in the Department of Biology. Her current research focuses on examining the relationship between Giardia lamblia infection and malnutrition.

Prior to matriculating at Georgetown University in 2010, Sweta worked as an analyst researching issues at the nexus of global health security and international health policy. Originally from Phoenix, Sweta moved to Baltimore in 2003 and earned a joint Master of Health Science (MHS '05) and Master of Arts (MA '09) degrees in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and International Health Policy from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

Outside of the laboratory, Sweta enjoys going to live music shows and cooking.

Allison Goff

Richard Henry

Christine Hercik

Christie graduated from the University of Virginia in 2011 with Bachelor degrees in French Language and Global Development Studies with a concentration in Global Health. Her Honors thesis took her to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to examine the clinical and social challenges of confronting the pediatric HIV/AIDS epidemic, under the guidance of Dr. Rebecca Dillingham from the UVa Center for Global Health.

Christie is now a third year PhD candidate in the Global Infectious Disease program, working under the mentorship of Dr. Christopher Loffredo and Dr. Joel Montgomery, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control’s Global Disease Detection Division—East Africa. She spent Summer 2013 traveling throughout the East African region to evaluate the potential for cross-species disease transmission at various high-risk landscapes at the animal-human interface. Christie's research involves traveling to Kilombero, Tanzania, where she is working on a program to develop biomarkers for emerging pathogens of concern among human populations living and working in such precarious environments. In the winter of 2015, Christie obtained a prestigious internship at the White House, where she worked on developing strategies to contain the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.

Christie is fluent in French and is currently learning Swahili. In her spare time, Christie enjoys yoga, photography, wine tasting, and traveling to new and far off places.

Elizabeth Lee

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Elizabeth moved to the East Coast to acquire her B.A. in Biological Sciences and French at Cornell University. After graduating in 2010, she moved to DC and worked at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute where she supported federal agencies in policy research and data analysis. Elizabeth came to Georgetown in 2012 to join Dr. Shweta Bansal's lab in the Department of Biology. Her research explores the spatial and age dynamics of flu through data analysis and epidemic simulations. She hopes to combine her research and policy interests to improve the use of mathematical and statistical models for public health preparedness and response.